


Potter X

by MrProphet



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Infertility
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-23
Updated: 2017-04-23
Packaged: 2018-10-22 22:59:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,479
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10706940
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MrProphet/pseuds/MrProphet





	1. The House of Elves

_This is why I never date seventh years,_  Lily Potter thought to herself.  _There’s nothing worse than a pushy ex who knows more curses than you do._

It was not as though Lily had any shortage of pushy exes, but most of them were significantly behind her in terms of their magical studies. Zaccheus Myrth was quite a different prospect. Two years above her, gifted even for a Ravenclaw and almost as skilled a duellist as she, he was quite capable of overcoming Lily’s magical defences and he was clearly not taking their break up well.

Lily lay on the floor, struggling to breathe around the after effects of a stunning curse.

“Why did you dump me?” Zaccheus demanded.

 _Well, if I was wondering about that I’m not anymore_ , Lily thought, but she was still too stupefied to speak. She looked around; her wand lay some distance away and she could not muster the strength for an unspoken summoning charm.

“Lily, I…” Zaccheus suddenly flew backwards, out of Lily’s line of sight. A black-robed figure swept past her with an unmistakably Slytherin stride and barely a backwards glance.

“Hey!” Lily gasped. She held out her hand and called her wand, then aimed it at her rescuer. “ _Impedimenta_ ,” she intoned, and the figure slipped and fell.

As Lily struggled painfully to her feet, her rescuer rose with a peculiar, fluid smoothness. She noticed his hands first, as his head was down; he had large, long-fingered hands. His hair was dark. When he looked up she saw that his skin was olive coloured, his eyes were huge and soulful. His ears were pointed and drooped at the tips, and his nose was long and sharp. It was a distinctive, but not unpleasant face, and even the Slytherin arrogance manifested more as a superior melancholy than the usual distain.

He held up his hand and magic flashed from his fingertips. “You attacked me, witch,” he hissed.

“Dobby X,” Lily gasped.

“Lily Potter. Why did you attack me?”

Lily shrugged. “I didn’t  _ask_  you to rescue me,” she replied tartly. “I don’t  _like_  being rescued.”

Dobby X lowered his huge hand and nodded once.

“What? You’re just going to accept that?”

The thin, expressive mouth twisted in a wry smile. “No one likes feeling weak,” he noted.

“ _Stupe_ …”

Lily and Dobby X turned as one. Lily’s own stunning charm hit Zaccheus at the same time as Dobby X’s second force bolt.

“That’s very impressive,” Lily noted as she tucked her wand back into her trick wrist holster. “Shooting magic out of your fingertips, I mean.”

Dobby X shrugged. “It is our birthright; that and so much more.”

Lily smiled. “You intrigue me strangely, Mr X,” she said. “Can I offer you a coffee?”

*

“I like coffee,” Dobby X noted. “It’s a little bit of Muggle culture creeping into the almighty bastions of the wizarding nation.”

“You really have it in for the wizarding nation.”

“The wizarding nation oppressed the Elves for generations,” Dobby X reminded her. “And before you point out that I’m here drinking coffee with you in the senior common room, you’re not a nation. Nor are you a wizard; you’re a witch. You are, like me, an invisible sector of the population. After all, no-one talks about the witching nation.”

“Do you know what paranoia is, X?” Lily asked.

“Do you know what complacency is, Potter?”

Lily sighed. “If you hate wizards so much, why did you help me earlier.”

“I didn’t,” he assured her. “My actions had nothing to do with you, I just don’t like people who use magic to try and make their point.”

“Oh.”

Dobby X smiled grimly. “You’re a witch, Lily,” he said. “You’re a Potter, so I don’t completely despise and distrust you, but you’re still not one of my people.”

“No, no; of course not. Okay,” she went on. “But didn’t you just make a point with Zaccheus, using magic?”

“Only if the point was ‘my magic can beat your magic; your magic is only so-so.’ Wizards, on the other hand, try to use their magic to establish philosophical precepts or prove their moral superiority over the witch they’re beating up.”

“If you hate wizards so much…”

“Can we just skip the intro?” Dobby X asked. “Take it as read that you’ve said ‘if you hate wizards so much’ each time? Although, as it happens, I don’t hate wizards.”

“But you said…”

“I despise them, as a nation, and I distrust them individually, even the well-intentioned ones.  _Especially_  the well-intentioned ones. That’s not the same thing as hatred; not the same thing at all. Anyway; if I hate wizards so much…?”

“Why do you look like one?” Lily asked. “You’re taller than any House Elf…” Lily leaped back with a shriek as her coffee exploded in a burst of superheated steam; only her superb reflexes, honed over three years as a school duelling champion, kept her from being scalded. Those same reflexes guided her unbidden as she slid her wand down from her wrist and unleashed a blasting charm against Dobby’s cup.

“I. Am. Not. A.  _House_  Elf,” Dobby X growled, hot coffee streaming down his face. His hands were tensed, gathering power in his fingers.

Lily held her wand at the ready, wondering how many of her duelling techniques would prove useful against a House Elf’s natural magic. Slowly, she relaxed and slipped her wand back into her sleeve. “I’m sorry,” she said.

Dobby shook his head. “No, Lily Potter,” he said. “ _I_  am sorry. As I told you, I don’t like it when people try to make their point using magic.” He sat down and composed himself, and then snapped his fingers. Two more mugs of coffee appeared on the table in front of them. “Please accept my apology.”

“Of course,” she agreed. “I realise… I mean, ‘House’ Elf is a derogatory term; I should have known. It’s just…”

“That most of my people have long since accepted and owned the title,” Dobby X agreed. “It is a way of coming to terms with the present; I happen to believe that it is also a way of forgetting the past, and that can be dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

“Extremely.” He took a long draught of his coffee and seemed to be mulling something over. “Can I trust you?” he asked.

“Yes,” she replied at once. “Although, I suppose I would say that.”

He smiled. “I don’t think you would,” he assured her. “Now; more importantly, do you trust me?”

She spent a lot longer thinking about that one, but at last she said: “I think so. You don’t hide yourself; what you see is what you get, be it ever so… rough and ready. I like that about you.”

Dobby inclined his head in acknowledgement of the compliment. “Then give me your hand,” he said, reaching out across the table.

Without hesitation, Lily reached out and clasped his long, powerful fingers. There was a loud pop as the two of them Disapparated from the canteen. After a moment’s pause a second, softer pop signalled the disappearance of their coffee cups.

*

“I don’t want to sound like a cliché, but where are we?” Lily asked.

“The Nation of Elves,” Dobby X replied.

“It looks like a broom cupboard,” Lily noted.

“It is a broom cupboard,” Dobby assured her. “It’s a broom cupboard in the Nation of Elves. Even un-Housed Elves need brooms sometimes.”

“Why are we in a broom cupboard?” Lily demanded.

“Wait here for a moment,” Dobby said. “I’ll see if the coast is clear.” He Disapparated, and a few moments later he opened the broom cupboard door. “Alright,” he said, “but quick and quiet.”

He led her along a series of long, low-ceilinged corridors, so low that even Dobby had to slouch; Lily was almost bent double.

“Why are you so tall, Dobby?” Lily asked.

“Because I decided to stand up,” Dobby replied tersely, “and I told you to keep quiet. Honestly, the more radical members of the Nation would kill us both just because you’ve seen these halls.”

“And yet you brought me anyway?”

“I want to show you something,” Dobby replied. “It’s just through this door.”

“This door?” Lily asked uncertainly.

“Yes, this door.”

“It would be,” Lily sighed.

Most of the doors in the passage were plain and utilitarian, much like the corridors themselves. Elven architecture seemed to lean towards the simple and functional.  _This_  door, on the other hand, was a triumph of style over function, apparently built to draw attention. It was huge – or as huge as the passage allowed; almost five feet high and equally wide – and bound in cold and brass to the point that Lily could not be sure if there was really wood behind the metal, or just some mahogany panels glued on for effect. It had no keyhole or handle.

Dobby held out his hand over the centre of the door. With a deep clunk, something moved inside the door and after a moment it swung slowly open.

“Let me guess,” Lily said. “The door is proof against wizard magic?”

“And you need to know how to move the tumblers; the plate is completely scry-proof so you can’t just feel your way.” He hurried Lily through the door, onto the top of a flight of stairs, and closed the door behind them. For a moment there was absolute darkness, but then light blossomed above them.

“Oh, and don’t use your magic here,” Dobby added. “Any use of wizard magic in the Nation will be detected at once.”

“Now he tells me,” Lily said.

The staircase was cut from the same dark rock as the walls, but the roof rise high above the steps and the lights danced in the shadows high overhead. The walls were rough hewn and, like the door, the staircase seemed built to impress. Veins of crystal sparkled in the soft light.

Lily took a step towards the left wall, but Dobby X put a hand on her arm. “Tread carefully,” he cautioned her. “The stairs do not meet the walls and there is a long fall if you step too close.”

“What is down here?” Lily asked.

“What has ever been down here,” Dobby X replied, “though long forgotten. Our history.”

*

It was a long descent, for there were well over five thousand steps. At last, however, they reached the bottom and were faced with a broad, circular platform of stone. The bottomless chasm which flanked the staircase also surrounded this platform.

At the foot of the stairs, Dobby X halted.

“Dobby?”

“I… No wizard – nor even any witch – has ever stood where you stand. None but the Elves themselves have ever entered the Ring of Time. Have I the right…”

“We can go back,” Lily told him, but he shook his head.

“No,” he said. “I brought you here to show you this; to share our past with the wizard nation at last. It is right that it should be you, Lily Potter, daughter of Harry Potter, the first wizard in a thousand years to risk his life to protect an Elf.”

Lily blushed. “That was Dad. I’m not remarkable.”

Dobby X grinned at her. “You attacked me for rescuing you,” he reminded her. “That’s pretty remarkable.” He held out his hand. “Will you come with me, Lily Potter, and know the history of the Elven Nation?”

She clasped his hand tightly. “Dobby X, I will,” she agreed. She met his gaze and a palpable charge leaped between them. They stared dumbly at one another for a long moment.

Dobby looked away. “I don’t kiss humans,” he announced dully.

“And I don’t kiss Slytherins,” she retorted in a half-hearted tone.

*

Despite a slight air of awkwardness, he led her into the centre of the platform with all the stately dignity of a man leading his bride out for the first dance, an image which did not seem as bizarre to Lily as it would have done when she woke up this morning.

“So, does this qualify as a date?” she wondered nervously.

“What is it they say?” Dobby X replied. “Lily Potter never kisses until the third date; and saying hello is the first two.” 

“Watch it, X,” Lily warned, brandishing her wand.

“If you use that, we’ll both be killed in moments.”

“Not if I ram it up your nose,” she corrected.

“Well, for a Slytherin that  _would_  qualify as a date,” Dobby assured her.

Lily laughed softly. “Maybe I should then.”

“Quiet!” Dobby hissed. “The Ring of Time turns.”

Lily was about to ask what Dobby meant, but before she could speak she saw a glowing mist swirl up from the chasm around the platform. The mist coalesced into a shimmering curtain, and on that curtain, images formed. Tall and terrible warriors with high-crested helmets, long cloaks and cruel spears. Their eyes flashed with fierce pride and fervour.

“Behold,” Dobby whispered, “the Warrior Elves of ancient days.”

“But… they’re  _huge_.” It was hard to say without a scale to compare them with, but if they were life-sized then the Warrior Elves had been over seven feet tall. They had powerful physiques, emphasised by their heavy armour. Their faces were impossibly beautiful, but as cold and hard as granite.

“Great in power, great in stature,” Dobby explained. “They gave free rein to the magic within them and in usage it grew, swelling the frames through which it flowed.”

In the curtain, the Warrior Elves marched in ranks, attended by crowds of lesser elves. The Serving Elves were smaller and slighter, no more than five feet tall, but somehow warmer than their masters. Although they lacked the great beauty of their masters, they were still very handsome.

Dobby nodded towards the tallest, proudest and cruellest of the Warrior Elves. “That is King Dagba na Caithrig, Lord of the Elven Hosts,” Dobby explained.

Lily pointed to a taller-than-usual Serving Elf who was girding the King in his armour. “Who’s the cutey?” she asked.

“The King of the Serving Elves; named Dagba after his master.”

“How do you get from kings called Dagba to student agitators called Dobby?” Lily asked.

“For many years, our names have been given to us by our masters.” Dobby X smiled. “But Dobby was always a diminutive of Dagba,” he explained.

Now the Warrior Elves left the Serving Elves behind as they charged into battle. Fire flashed from their spear tips and their shields were charged with lightning, but their enemies were no less fearful, wreathed in robes of shadow and armed with flame and thunder.

“Who are they?” Lily gasped.

“The Great Enchanters,” Dobby replied. “Perhaps the greatest wizards and witches who ever lived. When the Enchanters and the Elves each sought to control the mortal world, it was inevitable that they should clash, and the results were terrible.”

In the curtain, Lily saw the aftermath of battle, the land blighted and strewn with the bodies of the slain, most of whom were neither Enchanter, nor Warrior Elf.

“The war lasted for more than a century,” Dobby explained. “The death toll was massive and, as ever, heaviest among the most innocent. The Warriors and the Enchanters were too mighty, and too well-protected, to run any risk of being killed themselves. Serving Elves died in their hundreds, as did the Enchanters’ apprentices, and whole cities full of Muggles were wiped out, and still the Warriors and Enchanters drove the ‘lesser’ beings out to fight again.” He shook his head sadly. “It was a time of atrocities, committed by both sides.”

“And how did it end?”

“See,” Dobby said. “In order to break the deadlock between the Warriors and the Enchanters, the mightiest of the Elven leaders gathered to forge a weapon to end the war in one fell swoop.”

And in the curtain Lily saw Dagba na Caithrig and his Warrior Elves gathered in a rocky valley. They stood in a great ring, arms extended, pouring their power into a mighty crystal sword which hung in the air at the centre of the circle.

“They gathered in a sacred place at a sacred hour. They took a sacred stone and, calling on all of their power, between them gave shape to the Bane, a weapon of hideous power.”

“It’s a sword,” Lily said.

“Yes,” Dobby agreed, “but a sword so mightily enchanted that every cut it might inflict would be felt by every man, woman or child of the victim’s blood. One stroke, and that against a defenceless child, and it could have wiped out whole bloodlines, perhaps even entire species. With one blow, every human being – wizard and Muggle alike – might have been wiped out.”

“Good grief! Wait;  _might_  have been?”

“It was never tested. The weapon was too terrible to allow it ever to be used; that was why the Elves chose to act.”

The forging completed, the Warrior Elves stood, exhausted. The crystal from which the Bane was fashioned had turned black, and flickers of crimson light danced along the edge of the blade.

The Elves were exhausted; all of their power had been poured into the sword. They were thus unable to defend themselves when dozens of their servants rose from the rocks around their arena and struck them down with their magic.

“The Warrior Elves were all-but wiped out in that attack, but the Bane could not be so easily destroyed. Instead, it was hidden away, somewhere that neither the surviving Warriors nor the Enchanters would ever find it. For a time it seemed that the Serving Elves would rise to take their masters’ place, but they chose another way; one which assured that they would never be able to make full and terrible use of their power.”

“They enslaved  _themselves_ ,” Lily realised.

“They swore to place all of their power at the service of the lesser wizards and witches,” Dobby admitted, “and together with their new lords they overthrew the Great Enchanters. But before long they were betrayed, their oaths twisted to enslave them, as those who had overthrown the Enchanters sought to replace them. Only those who were able to flee to places of refuge such as Hogwarts retained any freedom whatsoever.

“Yet still, we did not uncover the Bane, did not use that terrible power, and we never shall,” Dobby concluded, as the Ring of Time faded once more into nothing. “Come; I will take you back to Hogwarts.”

*

Back at Hogwarts, Lily was surprised to learn that it was already night time. The school was bathed in the light of the silver moon as Lily and Dobby walked through the cloistered courtyard.

“Thank you, Dobby,” Lily said. “You’ve done me a great honour.”

He smiled. “And don’t think I don’t know it.”

“Of course,” she added, “since we’ve disappeared together for most of the day, people will talk.”

“I’m sorry if I’ve caused any harm to your reputation,” Dobby told her. “Not that it has very far to fall,” he added.

“Don’t worry,” she said with a grin. “I’m sure yours can only do well out of it.”

“Perhaps,” he allowed.

Impulsively, Lily leaned close to Dobby and kissed him. She half expected to be hurled away by a blast of Elf magic, but instead he lifted a hand to touch her face. She had only meant it to be a quick peck, but somehow it ended up lasting a lot longer than that.

“Hogsmead, Saturday?” he offered breathlessly.

“I’ll meet you by the gates,” she agreed.

It was only as she was climbing back through the portrait hole that she realised what she had agreed to. “Damn!” she muttered. “I’m dating a Slytherin.”


	2. Loss

Lily stood in the nursery. Her eyes were dry, but her heart wept as she stared at the empty cot.

“Lily?”

She did not turn as her husband approached, but she let him put his arms around her and hold her. He put his face close to hers and his tears traced the dried-out tracks on her cheeks.

“I’m so sorry,” he murmured.

“They say it wasn’t meant to be.” Her voice was desolate; cold and hard as the marble slab which had covered their child’s unfinished body.

“They are wrong,” he assured her.

“Are they?” Lily turned to face her husband; to look into his huge, dark eyes and touched the delicate points of his ears. “Has this ever been before?”

“I don’t care,” he told her. “I love you, Lily.”

“It just feels as though they were  _right_. I love you, Dagba, but we can’t have children. It seems that nature is against us, as well as society.”

“We’ll find a way,” he promised, “and if we don’t…”

She held him tight against her. “I know,” she sobbed. “But I wanted it so much.”

“As did I. But we still have each other.”

Lily Luna Potter-X could not reply.


End file.
